In five days I will leave my home. For the next year I will be living, learning, teaching, and generally trying to be useful in Namibia a country located on the Southwestern coast of Africa. At the suggestion of a friend and fellow bookseller I’ve decided to start this blog so that I may stay in contact with my family and friends, and keep everyone updated with regular posts and hopefully some photos of what and how I’m doing. I’ve never operated a blog before, but I hope to allow everybody to post comments and message me directly through this site. I also am not certain how easily I’ll be able to access the internet while abroad, but I will do my very best to make posts and write responses frequently.
WorldTeach has worked with the Namibian government to place me in the Oshikunde Combined School in a rural region of North-Central Namibia. The school apparently has about 700 students, or "learners", from grades 1-12. I will live with other teachers on the school grounds, and by day I will most likely teach English to 10-12 graders. English is the country's official language, but I will be spending a great many hours trying to learn Oshikunde's local language of Oshiwambo (all Barnes&Noble searches for Oshiwambo for Dummies have been unsuccessful).
If you have never had the pleasure of trying to fall asleep while I expounded my motivations for making this trip, I will simply say that this is something I need to do and I am excited to finally get going.
That's all for now. Peace.
